


The World Rebuilding

by Mattecat



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014), The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, using "back to the future" as a verb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 08:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17825108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mattecat/pseuds/Mattecat
Summary: Rex still exists, and he's not happy about it. One day, Finn catches him moving on his own, in the real world, and while the people of Syspocalypseburg continue their stories, Finn talks to Rex about the nature of their realities.





	The World Rebuilding

**Author's Note:**

> what's up god is watching me start a new chaptered fic and going "they've done it again, the absolute madman"
> 
> the themes in this fic are some I've wanted to write since the first lego movie, but never got the right inspiration for a plot and stuff. the sequel has given me SO much inspiration, and I can't wait to share this story with you!

Of course, Rex would disappear after Lucy came back for Emmet. That's how it worked. Emmet never grew up to become Rex, so Rex got all Back to the Future-y and went away forever. It didn't matter, because it wasn't _real_ – they were just pieces of plastic that some kids played with! Rex wasn't Rex, and he wasn't Emmet, either. He was Finn, if anyone, but really, he wasn't anyone. Just a toy. Nobody.

So it made Rex mad that he was still an existing, thinking person.

He grumbled about it to himself while Finn and Bianca played together, lying on the shelf Finn had put him on. If he looked at it in the right view, he could see Emmet and his friends, laughing and living their lives – blink, and it was all plastic. Inanimate toys.

It was surprising he could still blink, sometimes. He really couldn't do much like this. It was kinda totally unfair that he could still feel the ceaseless passage of time.

Like being stuck under the dryer again.

One day, when Finn and Bianca were gone, Rex sat up.

It was hard. Moving his body, _actually_ moving it, was always hard. That was why he'd been stuck under the dryer so long. Rex decided not to think about that, which of course meant he kept thinking about it. Wasn't like you could not think of an elephant, right?

Moving. Right.

He fell off the shelf and told himself it wouldn't hurt when he hit the ground, because he was just plastic. It still hurt. Rex picked himself up and climbed up to the table, where the latest creations were built. How long had it been? He was pretty sure the last story Finn and Bianca acted out was Batman and Watevra's honeymoon. Bleh.

The world was still. The people lifeless. Rex walked slowly, one leg at a time, looking around at the plastic, the toys, just bricks that could be taken apart and built back again, but mostly taken apart.

He sighed.

Emmet was standing in his house with Lucy. Rex kept himself firmly in the real world as he stared at him. Right now, Emmet was probably talking to Lucy about some dream he had or something – he had visions, right? It had been a while since Rex was Emmet, but he remembered having visions of the real world. Maybe Emmet would have a vision of Rex walking into his house and staring at him and saying nothing, because that was what Rex was doing.

After a while, he sighed again and walked back out.

Finn stared at him.

Rex stared right back until it hit him what the problem was. Rex had moved on his own, and Finn had seen him. That broke some rule, right? Some law of the universe? Probably?

Well, too late now. Rex never got that memo.

"Yeah," Rex said, every word feeling like rocks in his mouth. "I can move."

"Are you actually talking?" Finn said quietly.

"I can do that too."

"Oh," Finn said, "okay."

He opened his mouth and hesitated. Rex waited for him to continue.

"You were Emmet, right?" Finn said. "From the future. Years ago, I saw you move, back when my dad was gonna glue everything down."

"When President Business was gonna use the Kragle to end the world," Rex said. Wow, that had way too many syllables. Whatever he said next would have to be way shorter.

"So that means you're a real person."

"No."

Finn frowned at him. Rex decided not to elaborate.

"Except you are," Finn said. "I mean, I'm talking to you, and you're talking back, and I'm pretty sure I'm not imagining it."

"Look, kid," said Rex. "Just because I can move and talk on my own doesn't mean I'm real."

"But it does?"

Rex expended the extra effort to roll his eyes. "All of us are just representations of yourself, different aspects of you and people you know spread across a bunch of characters. Without your imagination, I'd just be plastic. That doesn't feel very real to me."

The words came easier that time – Rex realized the lines between the real world and the other world were blurring. Blink, and it was nighttime in the mountains of Syspocalypseburg, and he could hear sounds from inside Emmet's house, shuffling, voices. "Lucy, did you hear that?"

Rex pulled himself back into the real world. "Can you put me back on the shelf?" he said. "I don't want Emmet to notice I'm here."

Finn nodded. "Uh. Okay."

He picked Rex off the table and stared at him for a long moment. Rex let his face fall into a frown and kept it that way.

Finally, Finn walked to the shelf and put Rex down on it. "I'll talk to you later," he said. "When it's not a school night. Okay, bye."

Rex said nothing. Finn left.

* * *

"There's no one out there," Wyldstyle said, stepping up behind Emmet as he stared out the door. "You feeling alright?"

"I thought I heard Rex," Emmet admitted. "I know he Back to the Future'd, but… I dunno."

"It was tough to watch him disappear." Wyldstyle put a hand on his shoulder. "I know. It was tough for me, too."

It felt like in another timeline, she had failed him. She had never gone back for the Emmet that would become Rex; why? She couldn't imagine ever giving up on any Emmet – after all, she never gave up on this one.

"It's gonna be alright, Emmet," she said. "We're gonna build a better future, and then we're gonna build an even better one. It's just gonna get better and better."

Emmet smiled at her. "You're right," he said. "Thanks, Lucy."

"Don't mention it. Let's go back to sleep."

Despite assuring her he was alright, Emmet was restless for the rest of the night. Wyldstyle couldn't sleep much, either. The thought that Rex was what Emmet could've become…

He was gone now. Emmet would never grow up to be him.

Wyldstyle would make sure of it.

* * *

Sweet Mayhem took a deep breath before knocking on the door of Wayne-Wa'nabi Manor, built in the center of Syspocalypseburg. "Queen Watevra?" she called out. "And also Batman? But mostly Watevra, because that's who I want to talk to, I just didn't want to think I only wanted to see Watevra –"

The door opened. "Good morning," Alfred said. "I take it you would like to see Watevra Wa'nabi?"

" _Queen_ Watevra Wa'nabi," Mayhem corrected. "And yes."

"Very well. Take a seat, I'll tell her you're here."

Mayhem hopped inside and sat down. Wayne-Wa'nabi Manor had been built out of Apocalypseburg's bunker, or at least the pieces – the bunker had been taken apart with all the rest during Ourmommageddon. Mayhem shuddered at the memory and tried to distract herself by looking around. There were a lot of old photos of the Wayne family; Batman had tried to claim that Bruce Wayne was his roommate, but everyone in Syspocalypseburg knew his secret identity by now. Watevra didn't have a lot of photos, but the art pieces scattered around were probably hers, and – oh no. Was that Sweet Mayhem's old macaroni art? Why did her queen _keep_ that?

And what was taking her so long?

" _Heyyy,_ Mayhem!"

Watevra trotted into the room as a horse, then shifted into her standard blobby form and slid up to Mayhem's seat. "What brings you here today?" she said with a grin.

"Oh!" Mayhem jumped to her feet. "I want you to take down my old macaroni art."

"Aww, but it's so sweet –"

Mayhem blinked. "Wait, no, that's not what I came here to say. I wanted to ask you something."

"Of course!" Watevra shifted again into the form of a giant ear. "I'm all ears!"

Mayhem giggled, then frowned. "I wanted to ask… do you know anything about Wyldstyle's past?"

Watevra frowned. "I know she was an awesome warrior who helped Emmet save the universe on Taco Tuesday! Why do you ask? Looking into people's history like that can be a _little_ bit on the 'evil' side, and as you know, I have a very strict non-evil policy."

"I'm not doing it to be evil!" Mayhem said quickly. "Just… I feel like she's hiding something from me."

"Ask her, girl!" Watevra fell into a blob and bounced back up into an exclamation point. "No sneaking around! Ask her, and if she wants to tell you, she will! If not, it's really none of your business."

Mayhem sighed. "You're right, my queen. I'll talk to her."

"That's my girl!" Watevra grinned and shifted back into a horse. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to wake up my husband before he sleeps the whole day."

"Okay," Mayhem said. "If I may ask… why are you a horse?"

"Well, I was thinking about it, and Batman dresses up like a bat to fight crime, so if I thought it's be cool if I dressed up as a horse to fight crime!" Watevra shrugged, an odd motion as a horse. " _Buuut_ he's not super keen on the idea. Doesn't want me putting myself in danger, and also I'm really bad at secret identities."

"Cool," said Mayhem, "but why a horse?"

"I like horses."

"Okay. I'm going to go now – talk to you later?"

"Sure!" Watevra said. "See you soon!"

* * *

The next night, Finn went down to the basement, grabbed Rex, and slipped him in his pocket. Rex was too surprised to do anything. The kid better not put him through the wash, he thought.

When he was taken out again, Rex was in Finn's room. Finn sat on his bed and placed Rex on the desk next to him, where he promptly fell over. Finn stood him up again.

"You can actually talk, right?" Finn said quietly.

Rex thought about not talking just to mess with him.

"I know you can," Finn insisted. "I definitely heard you last night, and I saw you move, and – I wasn't imagining all that."

"Yeah," Rex said.

Finn perked up. "I knew it," he whispered. "Okay. I just wanted to talk about… stuff."

"What kinda stuff?"

"I don't know," Finn admitted. "It's kinda weird to think about. I mean… were you alive back when my dad was collecting you?"

Rex shook his head. "Hard to tell," he said. "I remember my childhood, but I don't know if it really happened." It's getting easier to talk the more he does it. "Maybe the morning I found the Piece was the first morning I woke up _ever._ "

"Uh, should I call you Emmet or –"

"Rex."

"Got it."

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Rex took an experimental step forward. "Why'd you bring me up here?" he asked.

"I told you, I wanted to talk, I just…" Finn fell down onto the pillow. "…I dunno. I thought I'd actually have stuff to talk about."

"Cool," said Rex. "Mind if I ask some questions?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Why am I still here?"

Finn frowned at him. "Why not?"

"'Cause!" Rex exclaimed. "I went all Back to the Future, and disappeared from the timeline! Why did I… not disappear?"

"I mean, I still have your minifig," Finn said. "It's not like I can make you disappear for real. Plus, if you're a real person, you shouldn't disappear."

"Why not?"

Finn blinked. ''Cause that's dying? And it's bad? People don't deserve to die."

"I'm not a person," Rex fired back. "I'm not real, I'm a toy. I'm a part of your imagination that's walking around for some reason. Why'd you even start talking to me? Why not Emmet?"

"I dunno," Finn said. "I feel like Emmet would freak out more if I took him away from all his friends."

"And I don't have any friends," said Rex.

"I mean, you're not freaking out."

"You're not wrong." Rex shrugged. "It's not like I need friends, anyway. I'm not like Emmet anymore."

"I guess." Finn rolled on his back and stared at the ceiling. "I still feel bad about it, though."

"Oh," Rex said. "Okay."

Finn didn't respond, and Rex couldn't think of anything else to say, so time passed in silence. Eventually, Finn sat back up. "I'm gonna get ready for bed," he said. "Do you want to go back downstairs?"

"Eh," Rex said. "There's not much for me there."

Finn stared at him, then said, "Okay. I'm getting my pajamas on."

He grabbed his pajamas off a chair before leaving the room. Rex watched him go, then took another step forward, to the edge of the desk. Looking down, the gap between the bed and the desk looked just as dusty as it had been under the dryer.

Rex stepped away from the edge.

So he still existed, huh? Insofar as someone who wasn't real could exist.

Part of him felt like he should make the best of it. He should try and rebuild connections he had lost as Emmet Brickowski. He had a second chance, didn't he? He could go to Emmet and Lucy's house and join them like they had wanted him to and have friends and a family and toaster waffles for breakfast and all that junk.

Eh.

Finn walked back into the room, now in his pajamas. "I'm going to bed," he said. "You probably shouldn't go anywhere while I'm asleep, or else I might not find you."

"Don't worry about it," Rex said. "Night."

He fell back down on the desk with a _clack._

Finn turned the light off, and Rex lay there staring at the ceiling until morning.


End file.
